Promatics Blog

How to Build a Great Crowdfunding App?

Crowdfunding apps are highly in demand these days, as this concept has turned into a traditional investment process. Whether it is a small startup, charitable organization or individual company – this idea can be applied to a large group of potential funders.

Many people think of building crowdfunding app, especially if they are short of cash. To build a great crowdfunding app, you have to set your own standards high. If done in a right way, crowdfunding apps can turn into a profitable business.

How to go about building a perfect crowdfunding app? What are the major steps? Let’s find out:

Step 1 – Define the purpose of crowdfunding app

Well, this is the first thing you should think of. What is the purpose of your app and why you want to build it? There are different types of crowdfunding techniques that allow developers to create reward plans for their supporters and receive donations on a monthly or quarterly basis. You may have to stick to a certain theme to attract people with your content and receive donations.

Decide the model of your business, depending on your purpose. Basically, there are classified into 3 categories, namely – equity-based, donation based and reward based. It is expected that the crowdfunding market will rise by 27% by 2020. The demand is already high and if you are planning to build crowdfunding app, think no further.

Step 2 – Know your target audience

The next step is to know the target audience and settle with a niche to scrutinize them. If you have plans to cater professional investors, your niche should be financial services. Crowdfunding created a world of opportunities for app development. There are many apps that are created for crowdfunding purpose and are trusted by audience.

The more refined and informative you are about your crowdfunding app, thee more successful your app will be. You must know where you fit in the market and recognize the audience who are interested in your product.

Step 3 –Choose the right platform

There are different types of crowdfunding solutions. You need to choose the right platform that solves your purpose. Developers can work efficiently on different platforms such as Android, iOS and windows. There are a variety of cross platform app development tools that allow developers to reuse code on different platforms. Some of the popular tools are – NativeScript, Xamarin, Codename One, PhoneGap etc.

Each platform has certain features better than others. Know the platform that is used widely by your target audience. The success of your crowdfunding app may not depend on the platform you choose. But, it is always best to know the platform that is suitable for your app.

Step 4 –Have a look at investment options

Know about the different types of investment opportunities you have to build your crowdfunding app. If you have potential investors, provide them with detailed description of your campaign. Explain the benefits, possible tax savings, risk factors and other things. Investors should also be provided with analytics, their current portfolio and important dashboard in your app.

P2P is one of the popular lending options and it is expected to reach $150 billion by the year 2025. The idea of P2P lending platform is to attract more investors. The developer might get significant income, as these apps are great idea for startups. To make it easier and convenient, your crowdfunding app may need a web interface to fill in details of the campaign.

Step 5 – Payment integration

Payment integration is one of the important phases of mobile app development. Before that, you need to choose the payment provider who fit into your requirements.Some of the popular payment gateway service providers are PayPal, BrainTree and Stripe. The funds are transferred from user’s account to the lender and vice versa.

You can create similar arrangement with payment gateway service provider, so that the lenders and borrowers can set their repayment time as per their terms. Think of additional security as crowdfunding apps are prone to malicious attacks.

Examples of crowdfunding apps

There are dozens of crowdfunding apps that allow users to create loan request and receive money. There is no limitation on where the money can be received from. Whether it is bank, financial institution or charitable trust – these crowdfunding apps work effectively.

Taplend

This is a crowdfunding app whose mechanism is quite simple. Once the user downloads and uses the app, he/she sets desired amount and return terms. Once the information is submitted, the user can submit request via this app to his friend or charitable companies. The user will receive the amount in bank account or wallet in 2-3 minutes.

Ledge

Ledge is a peer-to-peer lending platform that allows users to borrow money from others. The users who need cash for a ‘Cause’ can create campaign and specify interest rate along with payback period – and share it with their acquaintance. The campaign will close once the lender receives the entire amount. As soon as the loan period starts, the app will calculate payments for lenders and make monthly transfers from the borrowers account.

AppsFunder

This app is used for Google Play and iPhone App Store, where the user can define how the money given by the crowd funders will be used. This will give the funder an idea of their investment. You can even decide what the funders will receive in return. You can set goal and time frames in such a way that the funders will receive their money back, if the pledge amount has not been raised by the deadline.

Conclusion

Crowdfunding is a fund raising mechanism for startups, social cause, creative work and many more. It has become a common way for startups to raise money to launch a product or grow business. If you want to build a great crowdfunding app, you should first decide the scale of crowdfunding you wish to support.

Crowdfunding apps have opened up a new world for small businesses as well as non-profitable organizations. However, you need to learn the process of managing the campaign to meet your financial goals. Make sure to follow the financial regulations in your city, before mapping out your fund rising strategy. You may have to build a micro-investing app to fund larger projects. The cost of building crowdfunding app depends on its features and functionality.

If you want to provide a simple solution to fund raisers, focus more on the interface and repayment options. One thing you should keep in mind is that building crowdfunding app is not just about raising money, but is about evaluating the future of your project.

Rahul has been associated with the apps industry for more than 7 years now. He has seen the apps economy grow from its nascent days to a full fledged industry with its complete ecosystem as of today. His interest lies in pursuing and getting to know the best app development technologies, processes and platforms. He is truly an app enthusiast. In his free time he loves playing console games and reading history.

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About Promatics

Promatics is an ISO 9001:2008 certified offshore web and mobile application development company with a strong team of 100+ highly skilled IT experts delighting SMEs across USA, Europe and APAC. Our services and solutions help clients to achieve tangible business value and remain competitive in today’s evolving marketplaces.